yesterday I was again a judge in our local audio club speaker building contest.
the Pacific Northwest Audio Club (Seattle area + Western Washington) combined with the local DIY club conduct a speaker building contest every other year. I've been a judge in 10 or 11 of these contests since 1998 or 1999 (can't recall the first year exactly). typically some people from Vancouver B.C. also participate. yesterday there were 9 entries; the three judges share a demo disc and we switch seating positions and run thru various tracks and then fill out a judging sheet (see below). in years past people have asked for a copy of the sheet we use, so this year I made sure to grab one, as it is a helpful check list of things to consider.
the speakers all use the same amplifier, and are fed by an Oppo disc player the club owns. there is an acoustically transparent drapery across the room, so the judges do not see which speaker is which. first thing the club Genesis 7 speakers are used as a control to get our ears oriented to the room sound; then the contestant speakers are set up one by one. the hardest part for me is trying to get a proper scoring context for the first few candidates as it's a numerical score (1-10) and once scored you cannot go back and change the relative score. as a judge I might start in the middle when maybe I should have scored it higher or lower as I hear more speakers relatively. and, of course, the better speakers mostly sound similar......as they should.
yesterday we started at about 9:45am and finished about 1:30pm. so a fairly intense 3-4 hours of focused 'blind' listening.
the Pacific Northwest Audio Club (Seattle area + Western Washington) combined with the local DIY club conduct a speaker building contest every other year. I've been a judge in 10 or 11 of these contests since 1998 or 1999 (can't recall the first year exactly). typically some people from Vancouver B.C. also participate. yesterday there were 9 entries; the three judges share a demo disc and we switch seating positions and run thru various tracks and then fill out a judging sheet (see below). in years past people have asked for a copy of the sheet we use, so this year I made sure to grab one, as it is a helpful check list of things to consider.
the speakers all use the same amplifier, and are fed by an Oppo disc player the club owns. there is an acoustically transparent drapery across the room, so the judges do not see which speaker is which. first thing the club Genesis 7 speakers are used as a control to get our ears oriented to the room sound; then the contestant speakers are set up one by one. the hardest part for me is trying to get a proper scoring context for the first few candidates as it's a numerical score (1-10) and once scored you cannot go back and change the relative score. as a judge I might start in the middle when maybe I should have scored it higher or lower as I hear more speakers relatively. and, of course, the better speakers mostly sound similar......as they should.
yesterday we started at about 9:45am and finished about 1:30pm. so a fairly intense 3-4 hours of focused 'blind' listening.